
Originally Posted by
Bigen12
In 1899 Pershing went with his army unit to the Philippines to put down a rebellion of 100,000 Moros -- proud, warlike Muslims, who started a campaign against the Americans as soon as the U.S. Army freed them from Spain. The Spanish had not been able to subjugate the Moros in 300 years. They were split up into dozens of bands and had repeatedly defied all outside interference, from supposedly impregnable jungle retreats.
After a series of terrorist attacks, Pershing, just a captain, was sent in to subdue the Moros. Using knowledge of the Muslim religion, plus an iron resolve, and a willingness to be ruthless, he sent out orders to catch a few of the terrorists and teach them a lesson. His prisoners were forced to dig their own graves, then were tied to posts, execution style. The U.S. soldiers brought in pigs, slaughtered them, then rubbed their bullets in the hogs' blood. The aversion to pork among the Muslims was so great that this meant that the Moros, so executed, could not enter Heaven, even though they died as martyrs.
All but one of the terrorists were shot, their bodies dumped into their graves and the slaughtered hogs were dumped atop the bodies. The lone survivor was allowed to escape back to the terrorist camp to tell his brothers what had happened. This brought a stop to terrorism in the Philippines, which lasted for the next 50 years.